King's Harbor

Former harbor city of the Southern Inland Capital, now a landlocked backwater overlooking the dry delta, with the sea in the far distance.

"It was a rustic path to king’s harbor along the dry riverbed at first, and then up through the scrub forest that had grown among the ruins of what had been the ancient port. What the monk had called a crossroads was more like two footpaths intersecting. But there was indeed an inn, or at least a large farmhouse surrounded by evergreens, overlooking the entire delta of the marshes, all that once had been a bay and harbor, and now was a patchwork of villages and reeds.

. . . .up at the farm there was always work—and like any farming it was hard work— but it was contained within a different rhythm; there was time for pausing, in the middle of a clear day, to eat lunch on a warm block of stone that once might have been a harbor wall, or a staircase leading up to some long forgotten palace. now the staircases led to kitchen gardens, or a chicken coop, or terraces for the citrus orchards, or led even just to a hole in the ground surrounded by vine-covered stones—perhaps it had been a temple, or a lawyer’s office, or a brothel. There was time to daydream again, and imagine such things, and look out over the prosperous delta to the fine strip of silver on the horizon, the distant sea catching the afternoon sun."